Hello Supporters!
I promised from the start that I would keep you all updated regularly (and exclusively) on the progress of the book, but I realised today that I'd not written to you since announcing two weeks ago that the project was now fully funded. I'm about to put that right.
Firstly, a change of terminology: Days after we hit the 100% funding target (on March 5th) Unbound introduced a whole new look for the web site. The change doesn't affect your pledges or how I'll communicate with you, but the new look is designed to make it easier for people to find and purchase books Unbound has already published, or to look for other projects to back. Out go some of the familiar design elements like the big pie charts that marked funding progress, and that cute little stick figure. The idea of 'The Shed' is gone now too and the whole design is much cleaner and more businesslike. Blog posts like this are now just called 'Updates'. Like any change, it'll probably take a while to get used to the new look, but I've decided to embrace the new and also drop the references to sheds!
The last two weeks have been incredibly busy. Anticipating that we were going to reach 100% quite soon, I had already set the book's 25 contributing writers to work on preparations. That meant it wasn't a complete standing start for the project when the time came. Now that creative work is well and truly underway. As I write, just over half of the contributors have already submitted detailed outlines for their chapters — enabling me to make sure they are addressing their respective briefings — and I'm expecting the remainder to complete that stage within the next 7-10 days. Those who have received feedback from me also now have deadlines for writing the first draft of their actual chapters. This means that, by late April or early May, I should have all of the drafts in hand and I'll be able to start editing the book.
Whilst the contributors are writing, I won't be idle. One of my tasks is to interview an additional group of volunteers about the various times and events which we cover. These additional voices are intended to provide extra colour within the text. The scripts to guide those interviews are being written now, as I plan the topics I want to ask about.
So, that's where we are up to. The next six weeks are a really crucial phase, with chapters arriving and being plugged into my template for the book for editing. When those manuscripts are received I'll have more to share. For now, however, I'd like to thank you again for your support. This is going to be such an interesting book to create and I love the idea that I can share the process with you, the people who want to read it.
Christine